I was recently gifted a Netset pro-46 radio scanner from the 90s and im very interested in the hobby from listening to the airport nearby. What would anyone recommend as a better, more modern radio scanner that is relatively cheap?

Welcome to the forum. First find what you can hear. Decide if it's the hobby for you before spending more.Next what do you call relatively cheap?The Uniden 125 costs around £120 & is probably the best scanner £ for £ available. And that would offer you both Civilian Air & Military Air. The same as your pro-46. There is nothing at all wrong with the pro-46. It is a very good little radio. If you want a manual, than take a look at the following..http://www.repeater-builder.com/radio-shack/pro-43/pro-43-owners-manual.pdfThe pro-46 was sold under a number of different brands, I own Realistic & Radio Shack branded versions.

Hope this is not too much of a tangent on the thread. But my very first ‘scanner’ was actually what every house had in their front room in the 1950/60s. A radiogram. A posh piece of furniture that had an FM/AM radio and an auto change vinyl record player. Anyway. Tinkering around up and down the FM band. I discovered that not only could I pick up the metropolitan police channels. But also the Surrey ambulance service. In fact as a 15 year old kid, I had a map of London and a load of labelled pins so that I could plot the whereabouts of all the posh black Wollesley squad cars! And the ambulances were all Daimlers!Later on in the 60s, I acquired a small portable fm/am transistor radio which also for some obscure reason would tune into the aircraft frequencies of both Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

The Uniden UBC125XLT has been mentioned. It is a pretty good scanner but does not handle "trunked" or "digital" transmissions.

You need to think about what you want to listen/scan. Then there comes if you want the ease/ability to program the scanner from a PC. Also do you want to control the scanner from a PC as a "base station" setup?

All hand held scanners are portable and field usable and great assets especially for air band, military air band, motor sport & other events.

*If* you think the UBC125XLT might be a candidate then please check out my free Scan125 Control Program (see signature link below) before spending any money on any alternative PC programs. When I'm able you will get support at evenings, weeks ends, etc... for free. Scan125 is charity ware so if you like what you get, the support if you need it, then all I ask is that you make a donation to the DEBRA charity, or a charity of your choice.

Last edited by Scan125 on Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The pro-43 was made for radio shack/tandy by GRE in Chiba Prefecture ,Japan.Nice little radio from an excellent company." Back in the day" , GRE were in no uncertain terms , light years ahead of Uniden as they took on smd devices very early and this made their handheld units very compact but full featured.The 43 still is an excellent unit, should serve you very well.

Indeed True,Uniden weren't exactly happy with radio shack when they contracted out scanner manufacture to GRE.Radio shack no doubt helped with funding the SMD tooling for GRE which certainly wasnt cheap back then.Uniden always had their CB business which was massive but the USA government preferred to pour money into Japanese electronics in a big way.

Eventually GRE Comm Inc appeared in the USA as well, GRE ceased making scanners and the company was absorbed by Whistler.